Start a Cell Phone Repair Business in 30 Days - Day 1 - Buying Practice Phones

Overview

Now that you have read the introduction to this course, let's talk about the day 1, the first step in starting your cell phone repair business. Purchasing practice phones. It is good to have a few practice phones to help you learn the craft and service that you are about the provide. Hopefully by now you have made a list of phones that you want to repair and are ready to get started. Before we cover the details, it is important to know that you want to purchase broken devices. This will bring the costs down for each phone and allow you to not worry about breaking devices due to lack of experience. It is not necessary to purchase 1 of each device that you are fixing. A lot of devices have multiple generations that are very similar. It is recommended to buy 1 device of each brand. However, make sure to do some research before following this tip. It is possible that some smartphones will have large differences between each generation.

Places You Can Buy Broken Phones

There are many different options for purchasing broken phones. You want to make sure that the phone you are purchasing at least turns on. It can have a broken screen, charging port, buttons etc. But it at least has to turn on. This is important because if a phone doesn't turn on, you won't know whether or not the repair that you just finished actually fixed the problem. Here are a few places to check out.

Amazon

Amazon has a bunch of options for cheap phones, used phones and broken phones. They also have some type of credibility, offering a rating system for each seller. This will ensure that you don't get lied to or sold the wrong device or a device that doesn't turn on. Bookmark Amazon pages for each device that you want to fix and monitor the prices.

eBay

Ebay is a great option because it allows you to either auction for a broken phone or buy one outright. There are also a huge selection of items to choose from coming from all around the world. eBay also has a money back guarantee. This is what sells me on eBay every time. If the product you ordered doesn't match the description, eBay will refund your money. This requires absolutely no communication with the seller. Bookmark a few search queries for devices in your niche and monitor the prices.

Craigslist

Craigslist is a great option if you want to stay local and need the devices in a short amount of time. You are able to pay cash and negotiate prices with the seller. It has its downfalls as you aren't exactly sure of the quality of the product you are buying and a seller can disappear shortly after the sale leaving you in the dark. Be cautious with the route. You can either find garbage or gold.

Broken iPhone

Don't Buy Too Many Phones at Once!

Make sure to purchase one phone at a time and master the repair process of each one individually. This is important because if you find that cell phone repair is not the industry for you, you are not taking a significant loss. Also, it won't be so overwhelming or distracting. If you have 3 or 4 devices in your inventory, it can be easy to get sidetracked once you get stuck on a particular repair. Remember to not give up and continue to research if you are having issues with a particular repair.

Repair Old Phones For Friends and Family

This is a pretty neat trick. If you have friends or family with older smartphones in your niche, you can offer a free service to fix their old broken devices. This will not only get you a free device to work on, it will also give you experience throughout the entire process. Make sure that the person you chose will not be upset if things go wrong. If their phone only has a broken screen and for some reason you messed things up to the point where the phone doesn't even turn on, it might be nice if they aren't mad at you.

Broken Galaxy Phone

Make Sure to Pretest Everything

This process is something that I cannot stress enough. Whether you are purchasing a phone from Amazon, eBay, Craigslist or from a friend, make sure to pretest everything before you start a repair. This includes testing all of the buttons on a phone, testing to make sure that the microphone, speakerphone, headphone jack, ear speaker and charging port work. It also includes things like whether or not a phone can read a SIM card or make a call. There is an item that is always an issue called a proximity sensor. It is what locks the phone when you place the phone up to your ear to make a phone call. Also, make sure things like WiFi and Bluetooth work.

Broken Windows Phone

Conclusion

The is the first step you need to take to start a cell phone repair business. Once you have purchased your first practice phone, it is time to get started. However, before you get started, you need to make sure that you have the right parts and equipment to begin the repair. In the next few articles, we will take about the type of equipment you need to buy as well where to find parts to buy and what to look out for when buying parts. If you made it this far in the article, I hope that you are still interested in starting a cell phone repair business. It gets better, I promise!

If This is Your First Article in the Series, Go Back!

If this is the first article you have stumbled across in the series, it is important that you start from the beginning. While this is technically day 1, you want to make sure to read the introduction before getting started. I have provided a link below to that article.